π¨ redlet()
and greenlet()
threading helpers for Node.js, Deno, and the
browser
β± Run an async
function synchronously with redlet()
\
πββοΈ Offload a heavy function to a Worker
with greenlet()
\
π³ Fully tree-shakable \
π¦ Supports Deno! \
π» Works in the browser \
β οΈ redlet()
requires enabling SharedArrayBuffer
in the browser
You can install this package using npm, Yarn, or pnpm:
npm install tinylet
If you're using Deno, you can import this package from an npm CDN like
ESM>CDN or jsDelivr. You can also use Deno's new npm:
specifier to
import this package directly from npm!
import {} from "https://esm.run/tinylet";
import {} from "npm:tinylet";
If you're in the browser using a <script type="module">
tag, you can import
this package straight from an npm CDN like ESM>CDN or jsDelivr!
<script type="module">
import {} from "https://esm.run/tinylet";
</script>
π Find more examples and docs on the documentation website!
You can use greenlet()
to run a function asynchronously in a web worker!
This is great for offloading complicated synchronous work (like image
processing) to a web worker so that it doesn't block the main thread.
import { greenlet } from "tinylet";
// Runs asynchronously in a worker thread.
const f = greenlet((a, b) => {
let n = 0;
for (let i = 0; i < 1000000000; i++) {
if (i % 5 === 0) n += a;
if (i % 10 === 0) n -= i;
if (i % 60 === 0) n *= 2;
if (i % 75 === 0) n /= b;
}
return n;
});
// Takes ~3 seconds to run, but doesn't block the main thread!
console.log(await f(1, 200));
//=> -2066010092.990183
If you want to go the other way and run an async
function in a worker thread,
but still get the result back synchronously in the current thread, you can use
redlet()
! This is useful when you absolutely need something to be
synchronous (like for WASM interop) but the underlying web API is asynchronous.
import { redlet } from "tinylet";
// Runs in a worker thread and uses Atomics.wait() to block the current thread.
const f = redlet(async (u) => {
const response = await fetch(u);
return await response.json();
});
// Takes 1 second to run and BLOCKS the current thread!
console.log(f("https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/todos/1"));
//=> { "userId": 1, "id": 1, "title": "delectus aut autem", "completed": false }
β οΈ redlet()
works in browsers, only if you've enabled SharedArrayBuffer
.
Even then, you can't call redlet()
on the main thread; it only works in worker
threads. This is because browsers don't allow Atomics.wait()
to be called on
the main thread.
β
redlet()
will always work in Node.js and other server-side environments
like Deno. Those contexts all enable SharedArrayBuffer
by default, and support
Atomics.wait()
on the main thread! π
TODO: Add development blurb